Federal Judge rules Andrew Cuomo and Bill de Blasio violated religious freedom

  We have seen the not so subtle media bias when it comes to the coverage of the small groups of people who were protesting the house arrest orders compared to the coverage of the much larger Black Lives Matter and Antifa protests, which led to the takeover of a portion of Seattle, in regards to the potential spread of COVID-19.

 There is no need to go into that here, it has been well-covered already, but it is interesting to note that politicians have also shown a bias in how they have reacted to the two scenarios. But the politicians’ hypocritical reactions to different issues during this pandemic is not limited solely to these protests, it also relates to how they have handled the crisis and gatherings in general.

  Back in April  Bill de Blasio threatened to arrest people if they attended the funeral of a beloved religious leader and in March he threatened to “permanently” close houses of worship. While restricting this first amendment protection, Bill de Blasio and Andrew Cuomo came out in favor of the recent George Floyd protests even though there is a ban on large gatherings. This double standard did not go unnoticed and several religious leaders filed a lawsuit. Yesterday a judge ruled that Andrew Cuomo and Bill deBlasio exceeded their authority by limiting church services while letting the protests go on unchecked. Here is more:

A federal judge said New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo, Attorney General Letitia James, and New York City Mayor Bill de Blasio “exceeded” their executive limits by limiting worship services and condoning mass protests as the state continues to reopen from coronavirus restrictions.

U.S. District Judge Gary L. Sharpe issued a preliminary injunction Friday on behalf of two Catholic priests — Steven Soos and Nicholas Stamos — and a trio of Orthodox Jewish congregants — Elchanan Perr, Daniel Schonborn, and Mayer Mayerfeld — in Brooklyn, represented by the Thomas More Society.

They filed the suit in the Northern District of New York after mass protests and looting occurred in the Big Apple following George Floyd’s police-related death in May.

De Blasio had “simultaneous pro-protest/anti-religious gathering messages” when he “actively encouraged participation in protests and openly discouraged religious gatherings and threatened religious worshipers,” Sharpe said in his federal order.

“Governor Cuomo and Mayor de Blasio could have just as easily discouraged protests, short of condemning their message, in the name of public health and exercised discretion to suspend enforcement for public safety reasons instead of encouraging what they knew was a flagrant disregard of the outdoor limits and social distancing rules,” the judge added. “They could have also been silent. But by acting as they did, Governor Cuomo and Mayor de Blasio sent a clear message that mass protests are deserving of preferential treatment.”

And here is more about another example of the hypocrisy:

“Suddenly, the limit on ‘mass gatherings’ was no longer necessary to ‘save lives,’” Ferrara said in a statement to Fox News. “Yet they were continuing to ban high school graduations and other outdoor gatherings exceeding a mere 25 people.”

He added, “This decision is an important step toward inhibiting the suddenly emerging trend of exercising absolute monarchy on [the] pretext of public health. What this kind of regime really meant in practice is freedom for me, but not for thee.”

  Okay, back to the original decision. If I am reading this article correctly this is not a straightforward victory for religious freedom, the judge did not rule the State governments cannot restrict the freedom of religion but rather that all restrictions on our freedoms have to be equally restrictive. In other words if you are going to violate one right you must violate them all.

  But still it is a victory at a time when we desperately needed one to help stem the tide of authoritarianism that is creeping across the nation with the approval of the people…

malo periculosam libertatem quam quietum servitium